Plant nurseries are places where plants are propagated and grown. They also include retail nurseries which sell to the public. Many nurseries house and display plants on shelves constructed of plywood or a similar material. These shelves are often unsightly and provide no way to collect the water used to water the plants stored thereon. Water runoff from these shelves may create a potential water hazard whereby an employee or customer could become injured as a result of slipping and falling. Further, water runoff many contain fertilizers or other chemicals which may be harmful to the environment. The prior art has attempted to solves these and other problems through the use of vertical display racks configured to collect water runoff.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0011768 (“'768 publication”) discloses a plant display rack. The disclosed display rack provides a plurality of shelves where each shelf has a slanted plant support surface. The slanted surfaces coerce runoff water to an exit aperture and into a reservoir.
However, the plant display rack disclosed in the '768 publication has several disadvantages. First, the vertical orientation of the shelves (i.e., each shelf being positioned directly above or below another) may prevent plants not positioned on the top shelf from being exposed to natural sunlight or other overhead lighting. As a result, an artificial light source will need to be provided for plants housed on shelves positioned below the top shelf. This will increase the cost associated with the use of such a display rack. Second, there is no drawer into which information about the plants displayed on a particular shelf may be stored. Third, without a filter the exit aperture may become blocked causing water to build up within the support trays. This build up of water could kill plants through oversaturation of their roots and create a water hazard.